North Central's Austin Poupore (24) shoots over Carney-Nadeau's Brett LaFord as Carney's Preston Lauscher looks on during the second half of their Class D district final Friday in Carney. (Avery Bundgaard/The Daily Press)

CARNEY — It’s been five years since anybody but the North Central boys’ basketball team won its Class D district.

That all changed Friday night as Carney-Nadeau dethroned the Jets 53-40 for its first district title since 2012.

“Everybody is there for each other,” said Carney coach Jacob Polfus. “You can tell the chemistry is building on the bench, on the floor and they trust each other. I’m just so proud of them. I’m so happy, the emotions are crazy.”

The Jets’ run of three straight Class D state titles comes to an end as they couldn’t keep up with the Wolves, who started to pull away in the second half.

Carney advances to the Class D Negaunee regional to face Ewen-Trout Creek.

“It was a great atmosphere and the team that handled it better won the game tonight,” said North Central coach Adam Mercier. “We didn’t adjust to how physical the game was being called. We were trying to rely on foul calls and weren’t strong with the basketball. They deserved to beat us tonight.”

Both teams came out strong in the first quarter going back-and-forth as did the crowd of the packed gym.

The Wolves (15-7) and Jets (17-5) exchanged a couple of leads toward the end of the quarter and were tied at 13 by the end of one.

The second quarter was much of the same, but Carney scored the last five points of the period to take a 21-18 lead into halftime.

After only making one 3-pointer in the first half, the Wolves came out firing, hitting three in the third period.

Two of those came from Preston Lauscher, who took over in the second half where he scored 20 of his game-high 29 points.

“Big shot after big shot,” Polfus said of Lauscher’s big night. “When he’s willing to take those big shots he’s that much better. I just thought he had a great all-around game and the kids did a good job of finding him.”

Carney shot 6 of 9 (67 percent) from the field in the third which allowed it to take a respectable 36-28 lead into the fourth.

“We got stops and we kept moving the basketball,” Polfus said. “I thought the more we moved the basketball, the better shots we got and everybody was so unselfish.”

The Wolves’ lead kept growing to start the fourth quarter as they pushed it to 12 early. The Jets hit two big shots to cut the deficit to seven, but it was a little too late as they had to foul.

Carney made 9 of 14 free throws down the stretch to close out the game.

Despite the loss, Mercier was proud of his team and what it has accomplished this season especially after graduating all five starters from last year’s team.

“We’re disappointed on tonight’s loss, but then again you can’t judge a season off one game,” Mercier said. “We had a fantastic year and the players were a great bunch of guys to coach. I love my seniors dearly and we’re going to miss them. What they accomplished this year when nobody expected them to do so, it’s going to be a proud thing they’re going to be able to hang their hat on for a long time.”

Lucas Dombrowski led the way for the Jets scoring 15 followed by Noah Gorzinski with eight.

Brett LaFord backed up Lauscher’s big performance with 10 points.

North Central 13 5 10 12 — 40

Carney-Nadeau 13 8 15 17 — 53

NORTH CENTRAL (40): Schaff 5, Johnson 3, Gorzinski 8, Holle 3, Dombrowski 15, Poupore 2, Snyder 4. FT: 7-10. F: 20 (Gorzinski and Holle fouled out). 3PT: Schaff 1, Johnson 1, Gorzinski 1.

CARNEY-NADEAU (53): Kleiman 5, Lauscher 29, LaFord 12, Kirschner 6, Baumler 1. FT: 16-24. F: 13. 3PT: Lauscher 3, LaFord 2.